Broncos fare well in prop bets, Sam not so much

Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning walks off the field dejected after his team’s Super Bowl loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Oddsmakers have the Broncos as favorites to make a return trip to the Super Bowl from the AFC.(Photo: Chris O’Meara/AP)

The draft is over and the start of training camp is two long months away, which means it’s a perfect time to look at prop bets and Super Bowl odds for the 2014 NFL season. All lines courtesy Bovada.

1. Seattle and Denver are still the Super Bowl favorites.

What Super Bowl hangover? The Seahawks and Broncos opened the offseason as favorites to win the Super Bowl and are still in the pole positions after the draft. Seattle is getting 6/1 odds, while Denver checks in at 7/1. New England (15/2) and San Francisco (15/2) are next on the list.

2. The over/under on Johnny Manziel starts is 9.5

But what about all that big talk from owner Jimmy Haslam that Manziel is just a backup? The over feels like the obvious play. If Manziel opens the year as the starter, he figures to play every game barring injury. If Brian Hoyer is the Week 1 starter, he’ll face a murderer’s row in the first three weeks: at Pittsburgh, vs. New Orleans, vs. Baltimore. It’s not hard to picture Cleveland entering its Week 4 bye with an 0-3 record and a quarterback change for Week 5 at Tennessee.

3. Manziel has the third-best Offensive Rookie of the Year odds at 15/2.

The new Browns QB is only behind wide receivers Mike Evans (3/1) and Sammy Watkins (4/1). Wideouts have won just twice this century (Anquan Boldin in 2003 and Percy Harvin in 2009) and only eight times in the 47-year history of the award. Yet that’s still more than quarterbacks, who have taken the OROY seven times, with six of those wins coming in the past 10 years. Running backs have won the award every other season.

4. Michael Sam is an underdog to make the Rams 53-man roster.

The oddsmakers don’t expect Sam to be a Ram. The defensive end is +150 to make the Week 1 roster and -200 against. That means a $100 bet on “yes” wins $150, while a $100 “no” bet only brings in $50.

5. The Bears Super Bowl odds have improved the most since March.

Near the start of free agency, Chicago was 28/1 to win the Super Bowl. Now the Bears are 20/1, which is tied for the sixth-best odds of any team in the NFL. Vegas must be fond of that Jared Allen signing?

6. The Eagles Super Bowl odds have dropped the most since March.

The Eagles seemed pretty pleased with themselves after cutting DeSean Jackson. The oddsmakers were less impressed. Though some Super Bowl longshots have slipped from 33/1 to 40/1, Philadelphia is the contender with the largest drop in the odds, going from 18/1 pre-Desean to 22/1 today.

7. The five teams with the longest odds to win the Super Bowl are all in the AFC.

Every NFC team has better odds to win the Super Bowl than the New York Jets (66/1), Buffalo Bills (75/1), Tennessee Titans (75/1), Oakland Raiders (100/1) and Jacksonville Jaguars (150/1).

8. The Redskins are the longest shots to win the NFC.

Redskins fans are almost always irresponsibly bullish on their team, but Vegas suggests this year’s hopes will be as useless as ever. Washington’s 28/1 odds to take the NFC are tied for the worst with the Rams and the Bucs.

9. 27 NFL teams have the same or better odds to win the Super Bowl than Jacksonville does to win the AFC.

This might help explain why Blake Bortles’ OROY odds are the same as Jace Amaro, a tight end drafted in the second round.